May 01, 2013

Reefer Madness Jazz: A candid look at Political Dissent and Propaganda

Poster from Reefer Madness

Reefer Madness was a propaganda
campaign executed by Harry Anslinger, newly appointed head of the US Narcotics
Bureau who targeted marijuana as a way to oppress what he considered inferior
races, mainly Latinos and African Americans. Their efforts included a movie
showing young men and women smoking marijuana just before engaging in lewd and
vicious acts including rape, manslaughter, suicide and decent into madness. The
mayhem was blamed on Marijuana and the movie shown in local theater houses
nationwide. Production of the movie was paid for by a church group with the
intent of teaching parents the dangers of cannabis use. The results of the
efforts manifested in the form of The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 marking the
beginning of Marijuana prohibition, still in effect today.

Jazz Music, along with Marijuana was
popular with young Americans in the years leading up to prohibition. For this reason, Jazz plays an intricate part
in the history of Marijuana Prohibition in America and Jazz Musicians have long
been targets for Federal Enforcement Agents looking to set examples of Cannabis
users for the sake of justifying their unsubstantiated claims regarding the
safety of its use. The relationship, however, between Marijuana and Jazz music
goes far beyond the justification of a newly formed Federal agency or that of a
single man’s political career. Marijuana Smoke and Jazz beats have done more
than just intermingled above the heads of students in the tea houses of Harlem
or followed a slowly moving horn section through the night air down a New
Orleans side street. The relationship between Marijuana and Jazz music
represents the discontent of citizens beginning to feel the oppression of a
Government overstepping its bounds by working to create laws prohibiting the
use of a plant meant to serve the people as a source of medicine, food, fuel
and fiber.

Most cultures use music as a way to
express political dissent or record history from the People’s perspective, not
just that of those enjoying the most power over the recording of historical
facts at the time. One song mentioning Marijuana, or ‘Marihuana’ is the Jazz
Score La Cucaracha, whose lyrics
originate from the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Mexican war refugees migrated
North crossing the border into United States Territories singing La Cucaracha
which roughly translates as follows:

Spanish

English

La
cucaracha, la cucaracha,

The
cockroach, the cockroach,

ya
no puede caminar

can't
walk anymore

porque
le falta, porque no tiene

because
it's lacking, because it doesn't have

marihuana
pa' fumar.

marijuana
to smoke.

Ya
murió la cucaracha

The
cockroach just died

ya
la llevan a enterrar

now
they take her to be buried

entre
cuatro zopilotes

among
four buzzards

y
un ratón de sacristán.

and
a mouse as the sexton.

The refugees were called ‘Villists’
following Pancho Villa, a commander of the North Division. He was considered
the Robin Hood of the Mexican Revolution leading his people to commandeer
trains and steal from the rich. Whatever was confiscated was distributed to the
poorest peasants and villagers. The cockroach was President Victoriano Huerta,
notorious for his heavy consumption of alcohol. He had established a harsh and
military dictatorship in Mexico. Pancho, executing military campaigns until his
death, was assassinated on May 21, 1920. Huerta resigned the Presidency
on July 15, 1914 and went into exile. He traveled to the United States by way
of Jamaica arriving in 1915 where he was convicted on conspiracy charges for
violating US Neutrality Laws and imprisoned. He died in prison of sclerosis of
the liver in 1916.

President Victoriano Huerta

Pancho Villa, Wanted Poster

It is unclear whether the lyrics are insinuating that had
Huerta had marihuana he wouldn’t have chosen alcohol or the addiction was his
eventual downfall, but considering the refugees who had the song on their
tongues crossing the border did so with large suitcases full of the plant, it
may be safe to assume the former. This exodus represents Anslinger’s reason for
including Mexicans in his Reefer Madness campaign in the first place. Reefer
Madness Jazz Musician Louis Armstrong remade the song in 1935, two years before
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

Harlem, New York

Mezz Mezzrow

Reefer Madness Jazz Musician Mezz
Mezzrow moved to Harlem in 1929. He began selling marijuana enjoying instant
success is both the white and black Jazz communities. Back then, folks came
together in "Tea Houses" to obtain and smoke marijuana. Located in apartments all over Harlem, Tea Houses
served as the backdrop for many moments in Reefer Madness History. At one point,
historians note more than 500 of these speakeasy establishments in operation. Mezz was so popular, he had a marijuana
cigarette rolling style named after him called the "Mezz-Role". These
Marijuana cigarettes were packed heavy and rolled tight.

Photo from the Making Friends Jazz Tribute

When Mezz moved to Harlem, he began performing with another popular Jazz Musician, Eddie Condon. Condon had only just arrived in New York himself the previous year from Chicago where he spent most of his 20's playing banjo, guitar and served as band leader on multiple occasions. The two made a good team, Mezzrow having denounced white society during a period of history where segregation was a large part of every day life and Condon was known for forming racially integrated musical groups. Although white, they managed to become the largest marijuana dealers in Harlem at the time.

Mezzrow married a black woman and declared himself a voluntary negro. In 1940, when he was sent to prison for possession with intent to distribute 40 marijuana cigarettes, he demanded to be sent to the segregated negro prison. In his biography Really the Blues, he writes: "Just as we were having our pictures taken for the rogues' gallery,
along came Mr. Slattery the deputy and I nailed him and began to talk
fast. 'Mr. Slattery,' I said, 'I'm colored, even if I don't look it, and
I don't think I'd get along in the white blocks, and besides, there
might be some friends of mine in Block Six and they'd keep me out of
trouble'. Mr. Slattery jumped back, astounded, and studied my features
real hard. He seemed a little relieved when he saw my nappy head. 'I
guess we can arrange that,' he said. 'Well, well, so you're Mezzrow. I
read about you in the papers long ago and I've been wondering when you'd
get here. We need a good leader for our band and I think you're just
the man for the job'. He slipped me a card with 'Block Six' written on
it. I felt like I'd got a reprieve."

Stuff Smith's song "You's a Viper" referenced Mezz Mezzrow directly, "Dreamed about a reefer five foot long, The mighty Mezz, but not too strong, You'll be high, but not for long, If you're a Viper." Vipers even had a slogan. "Light up and be Somebody." in spite of general public consensus being in favor of prohibitionists. Jazz music was rebelling the propaganda by showing social acceptance in closed 'members only' clubs where those who weren't cool were not allowed.

Ella Fitzgerald being booked in Houston

Jazz artists paid a hefty price for their pro marijuana lyrics and culture. For the next several decades, Jazz musicians would be the target of law enforcement as they sought to validate the need for a Federal Narcotics Unit and the tax payer dollars being allocated to the Department through congress. Raids were not always about Marijuana. Law Enforcement officers looked for anything and everything they could use to vilify Jazz Musicians.

Singer Ellie Fitzgerald who often toured and played with Reefer Madness Jazz Musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Houstonian Illinois Jacquet, jazz impresario Norman Granz and Georgiana Henry. Ellie was arrested for throwing dice in her dressing room with these musicians in 1955 just before a performance at the Houston Music Hall. Fitzgerald dabbed tears from her eyes as she was being booked.
“I have nothing to say,” she told reporters. “What is there to say? I was only having a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.” Ella wrote and sang the popular Reefer Madness Tune "When I get Low, I get High".

San Francisco

Gene Krupa being arrested.

Reefer Madness Jazz Musician Gene Kruba was
arrested in San Francisco on January 21, 1943 for contributing to the delinquency
of a minor when Law Enforcement Agents intercepted the 17 year old sent back to
Gene's hotel to retrieve his marijuana cigarettes as he was returning to the theater.

Gene Kruba's account of his arrest:
"By then I was the glamour boy-15 camel hair coats, three trunks around me
all the time-and he couldn't think what to get me. Finally he thought, 'Gee
I'll get Gene some grass.' At that time California was hot as a pistol, you could park your car for a bottle
of beer and get arrested. So he had a rough time getting the stuff. He probably
shot his mouth off a little-'I'm getting this for the greatest guy in the
world, Gene Krupa.' Gene decided to leave the marijuana at his hotel. The
police, being tipped off, began searching the theater where Gene's band was
currently playing. "I suddenly remembered the stuff's at the hotel where
they're going next. So I call up my new valet and say, 'Send my laundry out. In
one of my coats you'll find some cigarettes. Throw them down the toilet.' But
the kid puts them in his pocket and the police nail him on the way out, so I
get arrested." "The ridiculous thing was that I was such a boozer I
never thought about grass. I'd take grass, and it would put me to sleep. I was
an out-and-out lush. Oh, sure, I was mad. But how long can you stay mad? So
long you break out in rashes? Besides, the shock of the whole thing probably
helped me. I might have gone to much worse things. It brought me back to
religion."

During this time, Jazz was all the rage in San Francisco's Fillmore District where clubs lined the streets jazz beats lingering in the foggy night air. During the 40's and 50's Fillmore became known as the "Harlem of the West" attracting the same musicians who frequented the clubs of New York.

Some of the early clubs include The New Orleans
Swing Club, Club Alabama, Jackson's Nook and The California Theater Club. Bop
City, the most popular of the neighborhood venues, opens in 1950. The area has since been revitalized, museums holding remnants of the area's deep African American Jazz Culture. Clubs remain open to this day and the area serves as a tourist spot for San Francisco attracting millions of visitors annually.

Jazz music from the 20's through the 60's was about more than social acceptance with regards to Marijuana use, but also contained deep emotional tones as African Americans dealt with segregation and blatant racism on a daily basis. Jazz music served as an avenue for expressing dissent with the oppressive laws forcing African Americans to see themselves as an inferior race. Reefer Madness songs consistently displayed characteristics of a counter propaganda campaign meant to repair the collective self esteem of a race of people being crippled in its attempts to feel validated and equal in the Civil Rights Movement. Just as the Mexican refugees crossing the border with suitcases of marijuana singing songs of their dissent record their history with music, the Jazz movement would forever crystallize the emotions of those oppressed, so future generations are able to consider when creating higher reality for themselves.

About Me

To say we live in trying times is an
understatement. Systems built with good intentions on honorable
principles have been corrupted by greed. Our environment is dying. We
no longer have the luxury of time or the comfort of complacency.

We
no longer live in a world where we can depend on someone else to
provide our only source of livelihood. It is up to each individual to
discover their passion and follow it, developing a livelihood that
sustains basic needs and allows an individual opportunity to improve the
quality of life.

Each individual must relentlessly pursue truth
& knowledge to develop a vision for the future. Tough analysis of
what we have now is necessary if collectively humans are going to
co-creatively design a sustainable future. We must change perception by
providing facts and encourage creativity as we move forward.

I
am wholeheartedly committed to knowing and teaching truth and believe
that we must spend every day of our lives proving that Love is our
greatest power. Sustainability honors life and I have committed myself
to understanding exactly what that means for humanity.